Compromise
by FireAngel375
Summary: Clara is stuck between the two men she loves. Set during the Danny Pink era. Primarily Whouffaldi but also Clara X Danny. Very slight hints of Twelve X Danny X Clara.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Clara always prided herself with her ability to negotiate. Most of the time she could get nearly everything she wanted as long as she gave in on little things. This skill came in handy during the year she began to live with Danny Pink.

Danny preferred darker towels in the wash room instead of her favorite pale pink set. Okay, she could handle it. That compromise meant Danny did not argue when she changed out the wall paper in the den to a color she knew he detested.

Danny on the other hand constantly tried to tell himself that he could deal with how she lived her life. Clara continued running away with the Doctor, and he was use to it; Because he had to be. As time passed however, some nights she did not to come home after work. Then it wasn't long before she seemed to lose track of her days in her _personal_ time line due to how often she disappeared.

Danny's patience waned after the third time of trying to explain away her absence to the Headmaster at their work.

"I thought her Gran died last week," The Headmaster had said the day Danny decided he'd had enough.

"It was the Gran on her other side this week," He had grumbled, knowing he looked foolish.

When Clara arrived back the next morning, she knew she had some trouble on her hands. Danny's arms were stiff at his sides, and his face was set in a hard expression.

She looked at Danny with eyes too wise for her age. Her hair was a wild birds nest halo around her head.

"Sorry I'm late," She said casually, as she rushed to their bedroom to change into her teaching outfit.

"How can you be late with a time machine?"

"No idea," Clara called back to him, her voice muffled as she struggled to pull her soiled shirt over her head. "...Actually that's a lie. The TARDIS is slightly broken."

Danny sighed as he leaned against the door frame to their bedroom. "You're flying about in a broken time machine? Do you know how insane that sounds?"

Clara's naked back became visible as she dug through her bureau for another shirt. He watched her muscled back with interest as she did so. "Have you been working out?"

"Um, sure." She did not elaborate. Instead she pulled her pants off and stepped into a skirt.

"What were you covered in anyway?" Danny gestured to the pile of sticky clothes she had tossed onto the floor.

"Oh," Clara hesitated. "Just some tree sap."

"Must have been a pretty big tree."

"It was." Clara finally looked at him, her eyes shining as they always did when she talked of her adventures. Danny knew with a sinking heart he could never put that look on her face. "We were running from these three foot tall aliens- They had tried to lock us in a box... to sell us as servants."

Danny's eyebrows rose as his arms folding up in front of his chest. He began chewing on the inside of his cheek, attempting to keep his anxiety in check.

"At first the Doctor figured, 'why not let them catch us?', because he'd never been on this planet before and he was curious. But of course, it turns out the aliens on this planet eat their servants after a couple days and-"

"Alright, Alright, I get it." Danny held up his hand to stop her. Any more detail and he would have a panic attack. "Lets just get to class okay? You can tell me more about this..." He waved his hand about. "Tonight."

xxxxx

Clara had a feeling a conversation like this was inevitable ever since Danny had moved in. She loved him too much to just disregard his needs completely, but she also had needs of her own- and unfortunately Danny did not own a time machine to fulfill them all.

However, it was also more than that; Clara knew at this point she would feel like half of her was missing without the Doctor in her life. The Doctor had seen her at her weakest moments, and he stayed. He believed in her. The Doctor held her heart just as much as Danny did.

"To an outsider, this would look very odd." Danny said after a long stretch of silence. He sat on the other end of the couch, his legs crossed."I'm letting another man take care of you."

This was a fact that Danny knew all too well. Danny did not want Clara traveling anymore. Every time she would utter 'we should have died but...' he would cringe. He could have lost Clara over and over again and never had known.

Danny often privately theorized that once you met the Doctor you changed forever. Whether that was a good thing he had not decided. At this point he was just tired of being banished to the couch they now sat on each time they had a fight about this.

Clara remained silent. He could not read anything from her face so he continued to speak. "Look, I know you're in love with him."

Clara opened her mouth in protest, her hands balling up. Fury flashed in her eyes. Danny winced.

"No, Clara it's okay," Danny quickly said to cut her off before she could speak. "I've always known. It's not just the adventures you love, not completely. Its the time you get to have- with him."

Danny let out a slow breath and he caught Clara's face momentarily soften. "How could I not know Clara? The way he looks at you when you don't notice tells me more than you ever could."

She continued to not speak.

"No matter what the scenario. I just can't deal with you possibly disappearing and never seeing you again." Danny's voice cracked and he swallowed.

"I guess we'll just have to come to a compromise then." Clara said stiffly as she looked away from him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Compromise meant every Friday, like clock work, the sound of the TARDIS materializing into existence echoed through Clara and Danny's bedroom. The TARDIS would remain locked in the apartment so Danny would know that Clara was not off on some strange planet on the verge of death.

Before she would disappear each weekend the Doctor would step out wearing a suit that was perfectly tailored. Danny would look into his stern old face and they would nod to each other like gentlemen. They were doing this to please Clara and they both loved her, albeit in different ways. The Doctor's love was as vast as time and space. Danny's love was mortal, but enveloped every part of his being. If he had to share, then so be it.

"I'll see you Sunday night," Clara said, every Friday. She would graze her fingers over Danny's cheek and kiss his mouth, her lips hot and soft. Danny would close his eyes and feel the curious gaze of the Doctor which seemed to burn right through him.

The kiss would end all too soon, and Danny would lock eyes with the Doctor. 'Your turn', he would think. He was pretty certain the Doctor could read minds.

That particular Friday she had her overnight bag hanging on her shoulder, and her very short skirt wrapping around her thighs as she walked. She approached the door, her hand snaking to fit into the Doctor's, and she did not look back.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Doctor and Clara arrived to the motel that night just as the sunlight began to fade. The Doctor's eyes roamed over Clara with intense hunger.

"You want to make up the name this time?" Clara asked, looking behind her with a cheeky smile.

The Doctor walked up behind her and slipped his hands down her hips and pressed himself to her backside. She could already feel that he was ready to rip her clothes off right in the parking lot.

His hot breath played over her ear, causing a pleasant shiver to pass through her.

"We can be Mr. and Mrs. Clara Who again if you'd like. "

"Mmm... That would work..." Clara ground backward onto him as his fingers dug into her hips just the way she liked. "I'm wearing the ring you gave me after all."

Clara held up her left hand, and on her ring finger was the silver ring with the black heart stone in the middle. It glowed red when The Doctor was thinking of her.

The Doctor had slipped the ring on her finger the day they got married. That had been the very last time Danny had given them permission to go on a trip in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Clara had spent three years on the moons of Pleura. She and Danny got married a few years after that and she alternated between the two rings when the situation called for it. Clara kept the one she was not wearing on a necklace.

The Doctor slipped Clara's left hand into his right as they walked to the motel's front desk. The attendant had to fight to hide her smile because Clara kept giggling. The Doctor told the attendant their information and when he said their 'address' he said the words in low seductive tones. He looked at Clara, and emphasized the most Scottish tones he could muster.

Clara hit him on the arm and could barely contain herself. The attendant felt as though they were newly weds; But little did she know they had been married for at least 10 years (give or take the 'few'. They lost track how often they snuck onto the TARDIS when Danny wasn't looking.)

Keys in hand, the Doctor opened the door to their motel room. Once Clara had carefully placed her overnight bag onto the table in the corner of the room, he wasted no time. He rushed forward, gathering her into his arms. She locked her legs around him, and braced herself as she kissed him hard. He staggered forward, collapsing with her onto the bed, grinding his crotch against her.

"You're not wearing any underwear, you naughty girl." The Doctor growled into her neck as he ran his hand up her thigh under her skirt.

Clara bit her lip and looked at him with her big brown impossible eyes. "I need you."

He hovered over her for a moment, losing himself in those eyes. She urged him on by squeezing her legs around him tighter.

The Doctor pressed his lips to hers. It was a loving but not deep kiss. Clara closed her eyes as he carefully ran his thumb over her folds, which were warm and inviting. She gasped against his lips as his thumb found its way to her clit. He teased it, only lightly touching. The gasp that came out of Clara's throat vibrated against his lips.

Clara unwrapped her legs from the Doctor, allowing him to re-adjust next to her and so she could spread her legs for him. His mouth seemed to be everywhere, kissing her collarbone, down to the top of her breasts. He bit at her ear lobe, timing it with the light pressure he applied to her clit. Her body shook.

Clara kissed him gently on the lips then sat back up, pulling her shirt off as she did so. She smiled as his eyes roamed over her with a certain amount of desperate undertones. "Want to help me with this?" Clara asked, gesturing to her bra.

The Doctor obliged, unclasping the back. His rough hands ran down her delicate pale skin on her back as the bra fell away, revealing her full breasts, her nipples hard.

"You're wearing too much..." Clara groaned, as she reached for the lapel for his jacket, but the Doctor shook his head.

"Not yet..." He said gruffly, eyes filled with emotion.

The Doctor slowly kissed her, making her close her eyes again and pulled her into his arms and positioned her more into the middle of the bed. She was vulnerable and exposed to him.

He pressed his tongue into her mouth, pulled on her nipples and rolled his palms over her exposed skin. She reached to his back and pulled up on the jacket and shirt, digging her fingers into the small space of skin she was able to access.

The Doctor kissed down her neck, and then kissed down her chest, down her stomach, stopping at the top of her skirt.

"May I?" He asked. She squeaked out a yes as he pulled her last remaining piece of clothing off. He moved himself so he was positioned between her legs, his face a few inches from her folds. He breathed gently onto the spot, looking up to see her skin flush as she crossed her arms over her face and moaned his name. She was begging.

Clara smelled so good, and it was a smell he missed desperately in their time apart. Her perfume mixed with her natural pheromones were a intoxicating combination for The Doctor.

He did have a time machine, so he technically would not have to wait for their allotted time together but the universe was vast and he was easily distracted. He could never say though that anything was better than smelling Clara all around him and tasting her. He knew now just where to put his mouth to make her even more wet than she already was. He knew how to press into her thighs with his hand to leave her panting. He especially enjoyed feeling her tighten around his fingers because he knew that he had caused her to get close to orgasm.

"Please Doctor-" She cried out as he pulled away from her. "I'm so-"

The sight was absolutely astonishing even though he had seen it countless of times before on countless beds in countless settings. Each time it made his hearts thump hard to see her completely unwound, and her thoughts only on him.

It had been a long road to get to the point they were at now- years in fact, but he constantly wished he had not taken so long to let her in. However, now that she was in his head, she did not leave. He could still feel the part of Clara that belonged to Danny, and he was respectful of it. She was mortal, and deserved to have someone to grow older with, but he could feel her absence more and more whenever he floated through time and space without her. His hearts now felt empty without her.

The Doctor's mind was in over drive sometime later when she cuddled naked against him, and he continued to wear his clothes.

"What's wrong?" She asked, playing with the buttons on his vest, searching his face intently.

The Doctor glanced down at her and then up to the ceiling, pretending to be very interested in the crown molding. "I'm just.. I'm wondering about something.."

Clara propped herself up on her elbows, a frown on her face that he wanted to just kiss off.

"Go on..." She prompted, no judgment in her voice.

"I want you to move onto the TARDIS." He said, bluntly.

Clara was use to his bluntness, after many years of being together, but this caught her by surprise. She hesitated then said, "You know I can't because of Danny."

"I want him to move in too." Clara, who had been running her hand gently through his gray locks stopped, and he noticed she was holding her breath. He continued. "I should get to know someone who co-owns my lover's heart... And what better way?"

"I don't know if he'll agree..." Clara bit her lip surveying the Doctor with doubt. She sat up and began looking at the ceiling as well. "But I'll ask."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The day Clara and Danny moved onto the TARDIS officially was full of surprises. The Doctor had instructed the TARDIS to make them living quarters, and she had obliged, by making a bedroom with a bed big enough for three. The Doctor had protested, but the bed ended up staying.

Clara opened the door with a suit case in hand, and Danny had followed. He had only been in the TARDIS once, long ago, and it had changed since his last visit. Though it had only been a couple years for him, it had been more than a couple decades for the Doctor and Clara, and Clara's presence was now all over the ship.

She had her own reading chair in the main library. The cupboards were alphabetized the way she liked as they were in the home she and Danny had shared. Everywhere you went smelled of her perfume.

Even the lighting was a subtle mixture that suited both the Doctor and Clara, for when he was tinkering, and for when she was crocheting. On the main console a curious looking squirrel sat, chirping every hour, on the hour.

But that was not what had taken Danny aback most. It was the thousands- it had to be thousands- of paintings of Clara that hung in the rooms Clara showed him. She told him sternly to watch where he went because the TARDIS had a tendency to become an endless void. She had once told him a story about when she had lost her entire bedroom and ended up finding herself from the week ahead still looking for her bedroom. She laughed it off as nothing out of the ordinary.

The paintings were from every angle, various outfits, forms of undress, costumes... they must have taken hours-days-weeks-years.

Danny remained silent as he surveyed what Clara showed him, all too aware of the Doctor's piercing stare as if daring him to say anything- either about the paintings or the TARDIS itself.

The Doctor never struck Danny as a man (was he a man?) who would become macho, but they were in his play pen now, and he did have the upper hand. When this thought entered Danny's head he swallowed and realized with abject horror that was how it had always been, TARDIS or not.

Danny looked at Clara little closer. She stood next to the Doctor, her hand on his chest and his arm around her waist. They were laughing about something private that he had not been listening in on. She looked the same as she always had except... Her hair... He glanced at the portrait closest to him of Clara laying in a field of flowers and it clicked. There were now tiny wisps of gray in it. They didn't detract from her appearance; in fact they were almost unnoticeable. But they were there.

Clara's smile met her eyes as she nodded to something the Doctor had said and she looked over at Danny. The corners of her mouth instantly turned down.

"Oh, oh no..." She whispered, more to herself than the two boys. She rushed over to him and put her hands on Danny's shoulders. "What is it? Is this too much? Are you having second thoughts?"

Danny looked up and again he looked past Clara's face into the Doctor's. His piercing stare turned Danny's skin into gooseflesh.

"You've been lying to me, Clara." Danny said, looking her in the face. "How old are you now? A few years older? Ten? Do you and the Doctor have children running around I don't know about?"

Clara made a noise between a choke and a sob as she brought her hand up to her mouth. "Oh Danny we didn't want to lie but you worry so much and..."

Danny shook his head. "You know what, forget it. We'll start new. Right now. Together. But no more lies."

The Doctor cleared his throat, putting his hands on his hips. "I think we can agree to that. No more lying to P.E. Clara?"

Clara glanced between the two men, reached to Danny, and took his hand in between hers. "No more lies. I can make that compromise."


End file.
